For what it's worth, Jon, at the moment I'm reading a biographical graphic novel on my iPad about a man whose life began in the Victorian era on October 12, 1875 and ended on December 1, 1947 and it's very interesting. Like Fanny and Stella, this gentleman shocked England; him with his drugs, his occult claims that he was put on Earth to proclaim that the only law is "Do what thou with", and his wild sexual escapades that involved both men and women. He was denounced by the popular media of his day as "the wickedest man in the world". You should check it out before declaring any book about an earlier era than our own being by definition old, stale, and musty.